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• Virtual Fencing in Montana

  I am third generation on the Broksle Ranch, and Emmett will be fourth. My grandfather came to this place in about 1950.

  Both my dad and I saw these virtual fence collars and thought that would be great for our summer pasture.

  TNC sponsored a sustainable ranching workshop and looking for pilot ranches to try to implement this.

  Having this virtual fence technology allows us to better utilize our pastures and forage and cut down on some labor and really kind of opens up the possibilities in what we can do from a grazing perspective.

  Virtual fence is a tool that can replace hard fences on the landscape.

  Virtual fence systems are a combination of a collar placed on a cow and then a landowner having an app on their phone on which they can draw a fence, which doesn't actually exist in the landscape, but a cow gets a message on that collar that says here’s the fence, through both audible, and then if they get too close, an electric stimulus.

  Our test of success for this project will be are these tools restoring rangelands and are they profitable enough for a rancher to continue those practices?

  We want to know if the different pilots that we're trying to revise the grazing into shorter duration, higher intensity, more rest is making progress toward our objectives of improving land health.

  I was born and raised on the family ranch. Our total acreage is about 19,000 acres, and we run 1,750 cow/calf.

  I've taken a lot of interest down here in crafting the feedlot to do the best job it can. I was approached by Pat Fosse asking, “Hey, as a producer, you know, if we were to try to help you do something, what would it be?”

  We put together a proposal for virtual fence and GPS ear tags, and they selected us for both. It's really promising to come out to this pasture and see these cows within their virtual paddock. Seeing this tool work gives me hope that it will keep lands resilient and healthy for wildlife, as well as for people.

  By trying different things and these ranchers sharing it widely to the community of practice that we're developing, there's less risk and less of a learning curve.

  I think it represents what The Nature Conservancy can do at its best, which is funding science, positive community relationships and solutions for common problems.

  We all care for landscapes, and we're all trying to lean into being better stewards. We're willing to try to help however we can in navigating through this research or to see how we can make things better for other producers.

  This is just a trial to learn what we can do, what might help make our lives easier. And, I'll take anything that's a little bit easier. I ain't gonna lie about it. It really gives ranchers ideas and technology and different ways of approaching things that can really help our businesses stay alive and sustainable in our small communities.